Bids for the construction of the new Fort Riley Elementary School came in 20% to 30% higher than expected, or about $4 million higher than estimated.

Dr. Corbin Witt,  Superintendent,  stated Wednesday that District staff is doing due diligence to ensure they’re looking at all the angles on this matter.

“We are going to go through and do everything in our power to mitigate some of those costs, and make sure that we follow every angle that we can to try to make sure that the decisions we make are in the best interests of this District, and are the most frugal for helping use our funds correctly.”

Witt added there is a lot of work to do, and they may not be able make a decision as quickly as Monday, which is when the Board of Education meets.

USD did recently receive $8.1 million in federal heavily impacted aid money recently. Witt said the District could part of those funds to mitigate the additional costs for the new school. “We would like to be able to use those funds in many different areas, and so we’re going to look at every angle we can to try to find ways to reduce that overall.”

Monday’s Board of Education agenda includes a staff recommendation to the Board that includes increasing the construction costs for the new school, not to exceed four million dollars.  The recommendation calls for the BOE to allocate up to $4 million of the federal impact aid grant to keep the project moving forward and on the same timeline. But as solutions to various options are finalized the amount required from that grant could be reduced accordingly.

Staff is pursuing alternatives to try and reduce the cost,  or obtain more federal or state funding assistance for the project.

The Board of Education meets at 4:30 p.m. Monday ( July 7 ) at the Devin Center.